Short Summary

On Monday (8th October), the third day of fighting in the Middle East, the Egyptian Ambassador in London, Kamal Rifaat repeated Egypt's claims that her forces were in control of the Eastern Bank of the Suez Canal.

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GV London Street & Exterior of Egyptian Embassy (2 shots).
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REPORTER: "Your Excellency, how is the war going?

KAMAL RIFAAT: "Anyhow according to the latest information we have received, that our force are in full control of the Eastern Bank of the Suez Canal and have repulsed counter attacks from the Israeli force. I would hope that such a battle would be ended with a victorious end for the Egyptian forces and the Arab forces."

REPORTER: "The Israelis say that the Egyptians provoked the attack."

KAMAL RIFAAT: "I don't think so. Any how, from the military point of view, that to have the initiative now everywhere on every front in the Syria Peninsula and up to the fighting which is going on now what the end of it. But we hope that everything is going all right."

REPORTER: "If you did get into difficulties, Your Excellency, would you call on the United Nations to settle this?"

KAMAL RIFAAT: "We received certain information that there is certain initiatives from the big powers - namely the United States and the United Kingdom to convene the Security Council of the General Assembly of the United Nations to achieve ceasefire in the present stage of the conflict. It is not clear until now what will happen in this meeting, but we hope that we can't stop fighting unless Israel withdraws from our occupied land."

London Street and Egyptian Embassy; Ambassador speaking.

Initials APSM/0.21 APSM/0.28

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Background: On Monday (8th October), the third day of fighting in the Middle East, the Egyptian Ambassador in London, Kamal Rifaat repeated Egypt's claims that her forces were in control of the Eastern Bank of the Suez Canal. The Egyptians crossed the Canal into Israeli-occupied territory on Saturday (6th October) and have since denied the Israelis claims that they have knocked out the Egyptian's pontoon bridges, leaving the Egyptian forces stranded. The Egyptian Ambassador also spoke about peace initiatives.